Hornbuckle, Brian

Dr. Brian Hornbuckle grew up in Shenandoah. After graduating from Brown University, he taught high school chemistry and physics in Clarksdale, MS, as a member of the Mississippi Teacher Corps. As a graduate student at the University of Michigan he earned degrees in electrical engineering and atmospheric science. He has been at Iowa State since 2003. Besides working in the Department of Agronomy, he holds courtesy appointments in the Departments of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He teaches courses in environmental physics, conducts research on the use of remote sensing in agricultural systems, and mentors both undergraduate and graduate students.   Dr. Hornbuckle is the Director of Graduate Education for Agricultural Meteorology, a member of the department’s advisory council, and represents the department on the Iowa State Faculty Senate. He and his wife Jalene have three children and live in Nevada.

Wiedenhoeft, Mary

Portrait of Dr. Mary Wiedenhoeft, Morrill Professor

Currently, I am serving as the Interim Department Chair. Additionally, I am serving as the Associate Chair for Academics and the Director for the M.S. in Agronomy Program. Currently, I am teaching several classes: AGRON181 Introduction to Crop Science, AGRON410 Senior Forum, AGRON496B Field to Fork on the Prairie domestic travel course, and AGRON496 Agricultural Systems of New Zealand. While I am department chair others are teaching AGRON450 Issues in Sustainable Agriculture and SusAg515 Integrated Crop and Livestock Production Systems for me. I also advise undergraduate and graduate students.

My research interests include sustainable agriculture, the production and management of alternative cropping systems, and agronomic education. I am interested in cooperative learning where the classroom becomes a place to learn in a personal, non-competitive environment, to develop understandings and/or skills, and to celebrate learning.

Thompson, Michael

My teaching program includes an undergraduate course on Organic Compounds in Plants and Soils and a mixed undergrad/grad course on Environmental Soil and Water Chemistry. Each course is taught one semester per year.

My research program centers on environmental applications of soil chemistry and mineralogy. These studies seek to identify chemical and physical conditions that favor stability, transformations, and movement of nutrients, soil organic matter, and anthropogenic contaminants in soils. Current research projects include characterization and transformations of soil organic matter, the impacts of biofuel cropping systems on soil health, the mechanisms of colloid-mediated transport of hormones derived from municipal biosolids, and the composition of organic matter preserved in Quaternary paleosols.